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Review:

Surely every child went through a manic developmental period, which can include moving from one city to another or saying goodbye to a close friend. Well now, Pixar Animation studios took the liberty of teaching kids about human psychology in a perfect relatable fashion. With a vivid world inside an 11-year-old girl’s head, every imaginable portion of the mind gets explored, from the imaginative games we played as toddlers to our dreams at night.
​Inside Out first explains what generates the mind of a certain girl named Riley:

Joy keeps her happy.
Fear keeps her safe.
Disgust keeps her from getting poisoned (both literally and socially).
Anger helps her to keep matters fair.
Sadness has no apparent use yet.

These emotions decide through a control board how Riley reacts throughout the day, creating memories collected into multicolored orbs. Over her life they preserve her core memories; with islands of personality stemmed off those core memories, making up Riley’s entire personality. Outside headquarters, the mind workers maintain everything behind the scenes, like her train of thought or her prison of fears.

Riley seems well until she moves from small, chilly Minnesota to robust San Francisco. It is a key moment in any child’s life filled with highs and lows that permanently alter one’s persona. So sure enough, the journey with the five emotions creates a simple adventure as well as a study of trauma. At first, Joy takes the authority to ensure Riley’s 24/7 happiness while Sadness just stays in a circle. All seems to go well until Riley goes to her new school, when her struggle to stay positive sends Joy, Sadness, and the core memories outside headquarters. These two key emotions now must tread through the endless hallways of Riley’s memories to return to aid Riley. You know, it resembles depression in real life: the sudden absence of joy and sadness leaves anger, disgust, and fear to take the helm, leading to dangerous results.

The shiny look of the inner mind is wondrous to behold, and the final moments crush your soul by the dose of reality. These feelings are strongly supported by enthusiastic voice acting by Amy Poehler as Joy, Phyllis Smith as Sadness, and the hard-edged comedian Lewis Black as Anger.

Even if you’re an adult, you will undergo a transportation back into your childhood memories. One of the splendidly memorable new characters is Riley’s old imaginary friend Bing Bong, explosive in his delightful childish nature of dolphin shrieks and candy tears.

If I have any complaints, then it would be a few brief scenes inside the minds of Riley’s parents; the emotions in their minds appear identical to the emotions in Riley’s head, except with the extra hairpieces, moustaches, and voices to match the host. These scenes don’t contribute in any way to the story, merely adding more plot holes to the established world.

Otherwise, Inside Out not only brings about great fun for the entire family to enjoy, but gives kids a crucial visual aid to the human mind. Over an hour and a half, a little girl’s growing pains learns the importance of letting her heart out to cry, encouraging all viewers to do the same.

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